ARTHUR HOPKINS PRESENTS: OLD-TIME RADIO AND BROADWAY
Written by
Martin Grams, Jr.
When Arthur Hopkins ‘presents,’ that hackneyed old verb musters up
a dignity. His goods are
worth looking at.” So
wrote the New York Times in 1930, fourteen years before Arthur
Hopkins Presents premiered over NBC.
The general title of the series of dramas was not worth looking
at, because on radio you could not see them, but according to radio
critics, were mighty well worth hearing.
For it was a treasure chest of drama over the most distinguished
of living American theatrical producers presiding, with the keen
cooperation of Wyllis Cooper, who made the radio adaptations, and Wynn
Wright, who directed them. The
National Broadcasting Company (NBC) honored itself and the public with
such a project.
There had, of course, been other radio series that revives the great
or at least worthy works of the stage in sixty-minute productions.
None that comes to mind did it so well as this program.
Let it be admitted at once that merely hearing a play could never
give the listener the complete satisfaction of hearing and seeing one,
especially if they first met it in the theater and cherished the memory
of it in its entirety. Granted,
too, that the individual listener’s enjoyment was different form, and
less intense than, that of the spectator in a crowd, who derives added
pleasure from that of the people around him.
The fact remains that the plays Arthur Hopkins and his colleagues
brought to the air have been singularly rewarding; that they not only
accepted the limitations of radio but, in a sense, capitalized on them.
You will observe, for instance, that they were presented as radio, not
as pseudo-theater. There is
no elaborate setting of the stage, because it was one of the rules of
radio that the listener did his own scenic designing according to the
power of his imagination. And
because this is entertainment, and not a course in literature, Arthur
Hopkins in his brief forward says something about the performer or
author – Katherine Hepburn of “The Philadelphia Story,” Thornton
Wilder of “Our Town” – but seldom much about the play.
The listener was flattered by not being told what to think of
what he is about to hear. The
play simply started, and thereafter it stood on its dialogue and its
performance, and casts such a spell as it could.
For, in a curious way, the enforced simplicity of radio production has
a certain affinity with Arthur Hopkins theories of theater direction.
Many years before, in the credo entitled “How’s Your Second
Act?” he declared war on “the prepared exits, the speeches at the
door, the exits laughing, exits sobbing, exits hesitating, the standing
in the doorways to watch someone off so that any applause they may
receive would not be interfered with.”
He denounced “all gesture that is not absolutely needed, all
unnecessary inflection and intonings, the tossing of heads, the
flickering of fans and kerchiefs . . . all the million and one tricks
that have crept into the actor’s bag.”
It did not always work, his director’s theory of “unconscious
projection.” Hopkins
produced more than one play which lacked the substance, and sometimes
the cast, that could meet such a challenge.
But the best of them did meet it, plays like “Redemption,”
“The Jest,” Eugene O’Neill’s “Anna Christie” and “The
Hairy Ape,” “Machinal,” Philip Barry’s “Paris Bound” and
“Holiday,” and needless to say, the great Shakespearean productions
with John Barrymore. How
deliberately Hopkins was applying his old rules to a new medium would be
hard to say, but it would be surprising only if they were not in the
back of his mind. In part,
as noted, the straight line in which the productions move is of the
essence of radio. They have no other choice.
But if one was to listen carefully to the broadcasts, they would
note that they avoid also the meretricious little tricks that radio had
acquired through the years – the phony sound effects, the contrived
mechanics, the stilted diction. That
would be the Hopkins way.
It is, naturally, to the great advantage of the series that it
consists of the tried and true, and that the plays were performed by
gilt-edged casts, including such players as Frank Craven, Katherine
Hepburn and Pauline Lord recreating roles they first played on the
stage. By the same token,
plays and players must meet the standard and the expectation their
reputations have evoked before the radio curtain rises.
To many listeners it seemed that they had done so with
exhilarating success.
Amid the hurly-burly of Broadway he had never been ashamed to speak of
art. Indeed, he had
insisted upon it, with the courage of an experimentalist and the high
optimism of a man of good-will. He
envisioned, he went on to say, a radio repertoire of fifty plays going
across the country to millions who had never heard them and might never
hear them otherwise; inspiring new artists and community theaters;
keeping the flame aglow. “After
all,” he said, “in the beginning was the word.”
Sadly, the program, amid all the talent involved, and the critics’
words of praise, it is agreeable to report that most listeners seemed to
agree favorably. They had a
little something to say, though, about the hour at which that notable
dramatic series was broadcast, nor could you blame them for being pretty
annoyed. It was an unholy
hour at which to ask the average citizen to sit down at his receiving
set and prepare to listen for sixty minutes.
Like The Lux Radio Theatre,
it did not seem like sixty minutes, such is the spell created by the
plays and players. But it is after 12:30 am, EST when the curtain rang
down, and a vast number of people for whom this would have been one of
the major radio events of the week almost certainly heard it seldom, if
at all. As the program
moved westward across the country it was aired at a more convenient
hour. 10:30 in Chicago,
9:30 in Denver, etc. – but in the densely populated areas of the East
its public, whatever it was, should have been larger by the first few
months.
The reason is, of course, that it was an unsponsored show, and that a
sustaining program had small chance to acquire a full hour of choice or
even fair time on a network. The
Hopkins project is not the only sufferer.
The Author’s Playhouse
at 11:30 pm on Friday nights, the Sinfonietta
and Invitation to Music on
Tuesday and Wednesday at the same hour on Mutual and ABC had clearly
been shunted off into a non-paying segment of the broadcasting day. Supported by cash on the line, they and a parcel of others
would be moved to a place on the schedule where they would command an
audience worthy of their appeal. It
was too bad. It also raised
anew a few queries regarding the old and never resolved definition of
what constitutes the public interest, convenience or necessity.
To these queries the broadcasting industry’s standard reply is that
while radio moves through the air it does not live on it, and that it
must be paid for by commercial programs, unless there is to be a
subsidized system that few American listeners have ever shown any sign
of wanting. There is
something in this argument, even to the point of justifying the
lugubrious but lucrative soap operas that “carry” so many infinitely
finer, and less popular, attractions.
To the average listener, this still did not make sense.
He would continue to want to know why such a program as Arthur
Hopkins Presents, which is worth any two consecutive half-hour
sponsored items, should be hidden away in the middle of the night; or,
if it must stay there in its “live” form, why it cannot be repeated
in transcription. The
broadcasters were so busy making more money than they ever had made that
they probably have not time to explain this, but sooner or later they
will have to make a real reply, if only for the sake of appearances.
The following is a rare article written by Arthur Hopkins, that has
never been reprinted since it’s initial magazine publication on July
30, 1944.
LOOKING FORWARD, TOWARD A PEOPLE’S THEATER
Written by Arthur Hopkins.
For twenty years the commercial theater in America has been steadily
contracting. It has finally
reached a point where new York has practically ceased to exist as a
center of theater and culture. Instead,
Broadway is becoming more and more exclusively an amusement center.
And just as it is no longer correct to say that all good plays
ultimately find production in New York.
For much of our great dramatic sustenance – there have been
pathetically few adult contributions in recent seasons – so it is no
longer correct to say that all good plays ultimately find production in
New York. For much of our
great dramatic literature does not come under the head of amusement; it
has a much deeper impact both on the theater and its audience.
The decline in quality of our local stage has brought with it a
decline in the quality of its playgoers.
Discerning audiences can only be built by mature plays.
Audiences too long denied, either depart or become, as trivial as
the shoddy they witness.
Why is our commercial theater suffering from its present state of
dramatic malnutrition? Principally
because of its economic burdens – oppressive real estate taxes,
arduous union conditions, the natural requirement that a commercial
enterprise show a profit. It
is being starved by production costs that prohibit that venturesome,
often doubtful, experimentation which has been a great source of the
theater’s vitality.
Great playwrights of the past got a hearing because the financial
hazards then were not so great and could, on occasion, be disregarded.
Today not the experimental play but the script with the most
obvious box-office and picture possibilities finds ready investors.
Those requirements would have sentenced many of the world’s
great dramatists to oblivion. Imagine
an unknown Ibsen, Strindberg, Chekhov, Shaw or O’Neill timorously
launching a script on today’s appraising market!
This is not to predict the imminent death of the theater, so
frequently prophesied by pessimists with little understanding of its
basic vitality. In many
other periods of its history the theater was equally exploited,
vulgarized and outraged, but its virtues were not destroyed then; nor
are they being destroyed today. Even
now the demand for the theater is growing as the means for supplying it
are diminishing – growing far beyond the capacity of Broadway to
satisfy it.
The theater will not die because it is the bread of the spirit, the
staff of the inner life. It
is essential to the continued expansion of our culture because of its
power to form the thinking and the character of the people.
Those of us who were fortunate enough to sit in the galleries nearly
fifty years ago and see the great of that day, know how deeply and
permanently our youthful minds were effected by rich examples of human
dignity, courage, graciousness, sacrifice, geniality, beauty and truth.
The most unforgettable week of my life is wrapped in five
consecutive nights at Cleveland’s Euclid Avenue Opera House when I saw
Olga Nethersole in different plays – “Carmen,” “Camille,” “Sappho,”
“Denise” and “The Wife of Scarli.”
This was indeed a period of feasting, and the gallery was truly
heaven!
My greatest regret for the young people of today is that they cannot
have my youthful theater enrichment. The greatest present service any of
us can perform for them and for the American theater is to demonstrate
the need of the theater as a cultural force in our growing civilization.
Russia learned this lesson early. To the everlasting credit of Lenin, one of his first
appointments in a bewildered and threatened experiment was that of a
Minister of Education, whose chief duties included the establishment of
theater groups throughout the shattered empire.
Lenin ordered the drama, opera and the ballet to be made more
fully a part of the people’s lives.
This policy was doubtless more political than cultural, but the
essential point is that Lenin recognized the tremendous cultural and
civilizing influence of the theater.
This is an idea that probably would startle our political
leaders, many of whom look with disdain on such “tom-foolery.” The limited view our own Government has of the theater was
exemplified in the pathetic WPA theater project.
Administered with any desire to make a contribution of lasting value,
the WPA might easily have created fifty permanent community theaters
that by this time would be operating on a self-sustaining basis.
When this opportunity was pointed out as the project was being
formed, we were told that it was not a theater project but merely a
means of providing employment. It
brilliantly accomplished its little aims, at a cost of more than twenty
million dollars and without leaving a single trace of its existence.
What do we want our people of the future to believe in, to respect and
cherish, not only politically but in their attitudes toward life and the
people about them? Whatever
it is, it can be impressed upon them, young and old alike, by plays
whether in the theater, radio or pictures.
This must be the purpose, the new meaning, of the American
theater. It cannot continue
to contract. It must
expand, for if the theater is not brought to the people they will surely
make it for themselves.
Perhaps this is why Arthur Hopkins chose to bring the stage dramas he
produced in the past, to the radio medium. A new opportunity to introduce the rewards of stage theatrics
to a market of radio listeners unable, for whatever reason, to make the
trip to the big city and buy their tickets.
The following is a broadcast log of each and every episode aired
on Arthur Hopkins Presents,
with deep appreciation to the late Vic Girard, who helped along with the
research.
Of the thirty-five episodes that aired, only 32 episodes are known to
exist in circulation. The
entire program was heard on Wednesday evenings from 11:30 p.m. to 12:30
a.m. EST (with only one exception, the premiere broadcast, which aired
an hour earlier from 10:30 to 11:30 p.m., EST.)
Originally, the program was to premiere on the 12th of
April, but due to Hopkins’ busy schedule, the program premiered on the
19th of April. Sadly,
two plays Hopkins originally intended to have dramatized, previous stage
hits “Paris Bound” and “What Price Glory?” were scripted but
never performed on the series before the program went off the air.
EPISODE #1 “OUR
TOWN” Broadcast on April 19, 1944
Starring: Mary
Patten as Emily
Howard Smith as Dr. Gibbs
John Thomas as George
Frank Craven as the narrator
Evelyn Varden as Julia Gibbs
Helen Carew as Myrtle Webb
Thomas W. Ross as the editor
Philip Coolidge as the milkman
Based on the stage play by Thornton Wilder, adapted for Presents by Wyllis Cooper.
Directed by Herbert Rice.
Music composed and conducted by Morris Momorsky.
Story: Pulitzer Prize-winning drama in three acts by Thornton
Wilder, produced and published in 1938, considered a classic portrayal
of small-town American life. Set
in Grover’s Corners, N.H., the play features a narrator, the Stage
Manager, who sits at the side of the unadorned stage and explains the
action. Through flashbacks,
dialogue, and direct monologues the other characters reveal themselves
to the audience. The main
characters are George Gibbs, a doctor’s son, and Emily Webb, daughter
of a newspaper editor. The
play concerns their courtship and marriage and Emily’s death in
childbirth, after which she and other inhabitants of the graveyard
describe their peace. Considered
enormously innovative for its lack of props and scenery and revered for
its sentimental but at bottom realistic depiction of middle-class
America, Our Town soon became a staple of American theater.
Trivia, etc. Varden, Carew, Ross, Coolidge and Craven reprised their
roles from the original production, which premiered in New York at Henry
Miller, and ran a total of 336 performances.
Emily was originally created by Martha Scott on stage. Jed Harris was the producer and director of the stage
production. Others in the
original production included John Craven, Jat Fassett, Thomas Coley,
William Redfield (billed as Billy Refield at the time), Jean (Louise)
Platt, Alfred Ryder, Doro Merance, and Marilyn Erskine.
EPISODE #2 “REDEMPTION” Broadcast on April 26, 1944
Starring: Louis Calhern as Petra
Dorothy Gish as Zita
Palmer Ward as Victor Karenin Charlotte
Holland as Masha
Edgar Stehli as Prince Sergei
Alan Devitt as The Magistrate
Also in the cast: Roger DeKoven, Stella Reynolds, Jane Robbins,
Charles Kennedy,
Norman Lord, Ken Osborn, Stefan Schnabel, Alix Duran, Ted Osborne
and Valya Karilyova.
Based on the stage play of the same name by Arthur Hopkins, which was
based on the Leo
Tolstoy novel “The Living Corpse”, and adapted for Presents
by Wyllis Cooper.
Directed by Wyllis Cooper.
Music composed and conducted by Morris Momorsky.
Story: When a young man Petra, wins Zita away from her fiance,
Victor Karenin, he succeeds in wedding her hand.
But Victor gets infatuated with a gypsy girl names Masha and his
duplicity leads to a tragedy.
Trivia, etc. “Redemption” had a New York premiere in 1918,
and John Barrymore literally created the role of Petra, the role Louis
Calhern performs in this radio drama.
EPISODE #3 “A
SUCCESSFUL CALAMITY”
Broadcast on May 5, 1944
Starring: Philip Merivale
Based on the play by Clare Kummer, and adapted for Presents
by Wyllis Cooper.
Directed by _________________.
Music composed and conducted by Morris Momorsky.
Story: When a rich
financier fears that his wife & children take him for granted, he
arranges A SUCCESSFUL CALAMITY to make them believe he’s lost all his
money.
Trivia, etc. There is an Armed Forces Radio Service copy circulating which
edited out the into and close: therefore, no full cast credits.
The original cast included William Gillette, Roland Young,
Estelle Windwood, and Katherine Alexander.
Arthur Hopkins produced and directed the original production.
The original production opened at the Booth in New York in 1917,
for 144 performances.
EPISODE #4 “THE
PHILADELPHIA STORY”
Broadcast on May 12, 1944
Starring: Katherine Hepburn as Tracy
Vinton Hayworth as Dexter
Steven Chase as Mike
Based on the stage play by Phillip Barry, and adapted for Presents by Wyllis Cooper.
Directed by __________________.
Music composed and conducted by Morris Momorsky.
Story: Philadelphia heiress Tracy Lord throws out her playboy
husband C.K. Dexter Haven shortly after their marriage. Two years later, Tracy is about to marry respectable George
Kittredge whilst Dexter has been working for “Spy” magazine.
Dexter arrives at the Lord’s mansion the day before the wedding
with writer Mike Connor and photographer Liz Imbrie, determined to spoil
things.
Trivia, etc. Hepburn reprises her stage role for this production (and yes,
she also reprised the same role for the movie of the same name).
The original production opened at the Shubert in New York in
1939, and ran for 417 performances.
Others in the original cast included Joseph Cotton, Van Heflin,
Shirley Booth, Nicholas Joy, Forrest Orr, Vera Allen, Dan Tobin, and
Lenore Longergan. Produced
by Hepburn, Philip Barry, Howard Hughes and the Theater Guild.
Robert B. Sinclair was the director.
Katherine Hepburn also reprised the same role for the 1940 movie
of the same name.
EPISODE #5 “ANNA
CHRISTIE” Broadcast
on May 17, 1944
Starring: Pauline
Lord as Anna
J. Edward Bromberg as Chris
Wendell Corey as Mat
Eva Conden as Mattie
Also in the cast: Hal
Dawson and Joe Latham.
Directed by Wynn Wright.
Based on the original story by Euegen O’Neill, and adapted by
Wyllis Cooper.
Music composed and conducted by Morris Momorsky.
Story: It has been
15 years since Chris has sent 5 year old Anna to live with relatives in
St. Paul, and now she is coming back.
Anna needs rest and a place to stay so Chris moves Marthy off his
barge. One night, going
down the coast, they rescue 3 survivors of a boat sinking.
The big strong Scot, named Matt, takes a liking to Anna and they
go to Coney Island when they get back to land.
Matt decides that he will marry Anna but Chris says no – as
does Anna. Every male
member of Chris’s family has died at sea and Chris wants Anna to have
children and a house on land. This
causes friction between Chris and Matt so Anna sits them down and tells
both of them the truth about her miserable life in Minnesota and the
secret she has been carrying.
Trivia, etc. Pauline Lord reprised her roles from the original stage
production, which premiered at the Vanderbilt in New York in 1921, for
117 performances. Also in
the stage production was George Marion, Eugenie Blair, and Frank
Shannon. Hopkins produced
and directed the stage production.
EPISODE #6 “AH,
WILDERNESS” Broadcast
on May 24, 1944
Starring: Dudley Digges as Nat Miller
Montgomery Clift as Richard Miller
Linda Collin Reed as Mrs. Miller
Philip Coolidge as Sid
Catherine Emmett as Lilly
Charita Bauer as Muriel
Dorothy Knox as Belle
Also in the cast: Craig MacDonald, Vinton Hayworth, Gene McKoy,
John Sylvester,
Robert Antoine, Richard Garrick, Tess Sheehan and Sandy Bickert.
Based on the Eugene O’Neill classic, and adapted for Presents
by Wyllis Cooper.
Directed by Wynn Wright.
Music composed and conducted by Morris Momorsky.
Story: Young
idealist Richard Miller is selected as valedictorian for his New England
high school commencement class of 1906 and intends to inject modern
anti-capitalistic ideas into his speech.
His father, Nat Miller, accidentally learns of it and interrupts
Richard’s speech before he can make a fool of himself.
The small town later celebrates the Fourth of July with customary
fireworks, picnics and the like, with Richard spending time with his
girl, Muriel McComber, who promises she will allow him to kiss her one
day. When Richard sends
poems of love to Muriel, quoting the likes of Omar Khayyám and
Swinburne, her father prevents her from ever seeing him again and forces
her to write a letter denouncing him. Heartbroken, Richard drowns his
sorrow in a local bar, drinking and smoking with a vamp called Belle,
and comes home drunk. Alcoholic
uncle Sid, who is used to the effects of liquor, nurses Richard back to
sobriety, but Richard still must face the uncertain punishment of his
father as he worries about his future with Muriel.
Trivia, etc. The original stage production opened at the Guild in New York
in 1933, and ran for 285 performances.
The original cast included George M. Cohan, Elisha Cook, Jr.,
Gene Lockhart, Eda Heinemann, Marjorie Marquis, William Post, Jr., and
Ruth Gilbert.
EPISODE #7 “THE
FARMER TAKES A WIFE”
Broadcast on May 31, 1944
Starring: June
Walker as Molly
Wendell Corey as Dan
Also in the cast: Alexander
Campbell, Edgar Stehli, Richard Garrick, Norman McKeigh,
John Ireland, Eda Heinemann, Jack Hartley, Jim Bowles, Karl Webber,
Tess Sheehan,
and Gayne Sullivan.
Based on the stage play by Frank B. Elser and Marc Connelly,
which in turn was based on
the novel “Rome Haul” by Walter D. Edmonds, and adapted for Presents by Wyllis Cooper.
Directed by Wynn Wright.
Music composed and conducted by Morris Momorsky.
Story: A charming
love story set on the Erie Canal in the mid-19th Century.
A farmer (Dan) works on the canal to earn money to buy a farm. He meets a cook (Molly) on a canal boat, but she can’t even
consider leaving the exciting life on the canal for a banal one on a
farm.
Trivia, etc. June Walker and Eda Heinemann reprised their stage roles for
this radio broadcast. The
original stage production opened on 46th Street in New York
in 1934, and ran for 104 performances.
Also in the stage production was Henry Fonda, Herb Williasm,
Margaret Hamilton, Joseph Sweeney, Kate Mayhew, and Gibbs Penrose.
EPISODE #8 “MACHINAL” Broadcast on June 7, 1944
Starring: Zita
Johann, Sidney Blackmer, Harold Vermilyea, Jean Adair, John Connery, Eda
Heinemann, Dorothy Knox, Charles Kennedy, Hal Dawson, James MacDonald,
Eugene Earl, Karl Webber and John Sylvester.
Based on the stage play by Sophie Treadwell, and adapted for Presents by Wyllis Cooper.
Directed by Wynn Wright.
Music composed and conducted by Morris Momorsky.
Story: unknown
Trivia, etc. Zita Johann reprised her stage role for this radio broadcast.
Arthur Hopkins produced and directed the original stage
production, which opened at the Plymouth in New York, in 1928, and ran
for 93 performances. Clark
Gable was among the original stage cast.
EPISODE #9 “THE
CIRCLE” Broadcast on June 14, 1944
Starring: Grace
George as Kitty
Cecil Humphreys as Clive
Horace Braham as Lord Portiers
Kathleen Cordell as Elizabeth
Edgar Stehli as Arnold
Bertram Tanswell as Terry
Audrey Ridgewell as Anna
Guy Spaull as the butler
Based on the stage play by Somerset Maugham, and adapted for Presents by Gerald Holland.
Directed by Wynn Wright.
Music composed and conducted by Morris Momorsky.
Story: unknown
Trivia, etc. The original stage play opened at the Haymarket in London,
England. The New York
premiere was in the same year, 1921, and consisted of Mrs. Leslie
Carter, John Drew, Estelle Winwood and John Halliday.
EPISODE #10 “THE
LATE CHRISTOPHER BEAN”
Broadcast on June 21, 1944
Starring: Pauline
Lord as Abby
Charita Bauer as Susan
Joesph Di Santis as Tallen
Wendell Corey as Warren
James MacDonald as Rosen
Sidney Blackmer as Dr. Hagget
Helen carew as Mrs. Hagget Elizabeth
Dewing as Ada
Based on the stage play by Sidney Howard (after René Fauchois),
and adapted for Presents by
Gerald Holland.
Directed by Wynn Wright.
Music composed and conducted by Morris Momorsky.
Story: The Haggetts
are a “respectable” high-society family who have fallen onto hard
times but are keeping up appearances.
To make ends meet, they are forced to take in a lodger (oh, the
shame!). The lodger is Christopher Bean, an obscure painter who shows
no promise of artistic greatness. The
snobbish Haggetts all look down on Bean, tolerating his presence only
for the rent he pays. Bean’s
only friend in the Haggett household is Abby, the kind-hearted cook
played by Marie Dressler. Eventually,
Christopher Bean dies, broke and obscure.
He bequeaths his last painting to Abby, who treasures the
entirely worthless artwork as a memento of her dear friend.
Trivia, etc. This play premiered at the Henry Miller in New York in 1932,
and ran a total of 211 performances.
Pauline Lord reprised her stage role for this radio production.
Others in the original cast included: Walter Connolly, Ernest
Lawford, George Coulouris, Beulah Bondi, and Clarence Derwent.
The June 28, 1944 radio broadcast was pre-empted by a political
convention.
EPISODE #11 “MRS.
BUMPSTEAD-LEIGH”
Broadcast on July 5, 1944
Starring: Estelle
Windwood as Mrs. Bumpstead-Leigh
Sidney Blackmer as Peter Swallow
Josephine Hull as Mrs. DeSalle
Catherine Emmett as Mrs. Rossin Elizabeth
Eustace as Nina
Susan Karin as Violet
Ivy Trotman as Mrs. Lettace
Blaine Cordner as Andrew Rossin
Eugene Earl as Mr. Levitt
James MacDonald as Mr. Rossin
Guy Spaull as the butler
Vinton Hayworth as Jeffrey Rossin
Based on the stage play by Harry James Smith, and adapted for Presents by Gerald Holland.
Directed by Wynn Wright.
Music composed and conducted by Morris Momorsky.
Story: unknown
Trivia, etc. The premiere of this stage play was at the Lyceum in New York
in 1911, and ran for 64 performances.
The original cast included Minnie Maddern Fiske, Henry E. Dixey
and Florine Arnold.
Zasu Pitts was originally scheduled to play the role of Mrs. Bumpstead-Leigh
in this radio production, but the star asked for a postponement of her
appearance.
EPISODE #12 “THE
LAST OF MRS. CHEYNEY”
Broadcast on July 12, 1944
Starring: Mary
Phillips as Mrs. Cheyney
Roland Young as Lord Arthur
Also in the cast: Nicholas Joy, Kathleen Cordell, Catherine
Emmett, Merle malcolm, Audrey
Ridgewell, Ivy Trotman, Francis Conklin, Neil Fitzgerald, Guy Spaull
and Harold Young.
Based on the stage play by Fred Lonsdale, and adapted for Presents
by Gerald Holland.
Directed by Wynn Wright.
Music composed and conducted by Morris Momorsky.
Story: There is a
big charity function at the house of Mrs. Cheyney and a lot of society
is present. With her rich husband, deceased, rich old Lord Kelton and
playboy Lord Arthur Dilling are both very interested in the mysterious
Fay. Invited to the house
of the Duchess, Fay is again the center of attention for Arthur and
Kelton with her leaning towards stuffy old Kelton.
When Arthur sees Charles, Fay’s Butler, lurking in the gardens,
he remembers that Charles was a thief caught in Monte Carlo and he
figures that Fay may be more interested in the pearls of the Duchess,
which she is. After Fay
takes the pearls, but before she can toss them out the window, she is
caught by Arthur who is very disappointed in how things are turning out.
Trivia, etc. Both London and New York premieres were in 1925, and
Roland Young played the role of Lord Arthur in both productions, and was
the only person from the original New York cast to reprise their role
for this radio broadcast. Also
in the original NY cast: Ina Claire, A.E. matthews, Nancy Ryan, Winifred
Harris, May Buckley, Felix Aylmer, and Helen Haye.
The broadcast of July 19, 1944 was pre-empted.
EPISODE #13 “THE
LADY WITH A LAMP”
Broadcast on July 26, 1944
Starring: Helen Hayes as Florence Nightingale
Edgar Stehli as Sidney Herbert
Eva Leonard Boyne as Elizabeth Herbert Nicholas
Joy as Lord Pomerston
Catherine Emmett as Mrs. Nightingale Whitford
Kane as Dr. Sutherland
Bertram Tansell as Henry Tremaine
Also in the cast: Ivy
Trotman, Norah Howard, Alastair Rong, James MacDonald, Herald Young,
Neil Fitzgerald, Philip Tonge and Eugene Earl.
Based on the stage play by Reginald Berkeley, and adapted for Presents
by Charles Newton.
Directed by Wynn Wright.
Music composed and conducted by Morris Momorsky.
Story: Historical
figurehood Florence Nightingale plays nurse-crusader during the 19th
century. This stage play
and radio drama used historical facts and figures to present the scenes
listeners hear.
Trivia, etc. Edith Evans played the role of Nightingale in the
original NY cast from 1931. The
stage play premiered in London two years before at the Arts Theater.
EPISODE #14 “THE
LETTER” Broadcast on August 2, 1944
Starring: Geraldine
Fitzgerald as Leslie Crosby
Horace Braham as Howard Joyce
Anthony Kemble as On Choy Sing
Alexander Kirkland as Robert Crosby
Eva Leonard Boyne as Mrs. Joyce
Also in the cast: Harold Young, Alan Devitt and Bruno Wick.
Based on the story by W. Somerset Maugham, and adapted for Presents by Charles Newton.
Directed by Wynn Wright.
Music composed and conducted by Morris Momorsky.
Story: unknown
Trivia, etc. The original 1927 NY cast included: Katherine Cornell, J.W.
Austin, Allen Jeayes, and John Buckler.
EPISODE #15 “YELLOW
JACK” Broadcast on August 9, 1944
Starring: Whitford Kane as Dr. Finley
Myron McCormick as Dr. Carroll
William Harrigan as Dr. Reed
Edgar Stehli as Dr. Lazier
Also in the cast: Larry
Haines, Clyde North, Wendell Corey, John Connery, Stuart Brodie,
Olive Deering, Bert Bertram and James Tandy.
Based on the Sidney Howard stage play, and adapted for Presents
by Gerald Holland.
Directed by Wynn Wright.
Music composed and conducted by Morris Momorsky.
Story: The story of
Dr. Walter Reed’s determination to find the cure for Yellow Fever, as
the epidemic continues to take the lives of many soldiers.
With other doctors believing Reed is looking toward the wrong
direction for the cure, he is more determined as ever and succeeds.
Trivia, etc. Whitford Kane and Myron McCormick reprised their stage roles
for this radio broadcast. The
stage play premiered at Martin Beck in New York in 1934, and ran a total
of 79 performances. Also in
the NY cast were: James
Stewart, Sam Levene, Eddie Acuff, John Miltern, Geoffrey Kerr, Eduardo
Ciannelli, Robert Keith, Barton MacLand, George Nash and Lloyd Gough.
This radio production was originally scheduled for July 19, but was
pre-empted for August 9.
EPISODE #16 “THE
SWAN” Broadcast on August 16, 1944.
Starring: Eva
LeGallienne as Princess Alexandra, the Swan
Staats Cotsworth as the Professor
Hilda Spong as Princess Beatrice
Eva Leonard Boing as Princess Dominica
Horace Braham as Prince Albert
Cecil Humphreys as Father Hyacinth
Also in the cast: Norah
Howard, Robert Antoine, Alastair Kyle and Guy Sorrows.
Based on the stage play by Ferenc Molnár, and adapted for Presents by _____________.
Directed by Wynn Wright.
Music composed and conducted by Morris Momorsky.
Story: Princess
Beatrice’s days of enjoying the regal life are numbered unless her
only daughter, Princess Alexandra, makes a good impression on a distant
cousin when he pays a surprise visit to their palace.
Prince Albert has searched all over Europe for a bride and he’s
bored by the whole courtship routine.
He is more interested in the estate’s dairy than Alexandra’s
rose garden. And then he
starts playing football with the tutor and Alexandra’s brothers.
Invite the tutor to the ball that night and watch how gracefully
Alexandra dances with him.
Trivia, etc. “The Swan” had it’s New York premiere in 1923.
Eva LeGallienne reprised her stage performance for this radio
broadcast. Others in the NY
cast were Philip Merivale and Basil Rathbone.
EPISODE #17 “THE
DELUGE” Broadcast on August 23, 1944
Starring: Pauline
Lord as Sadie
Sidney Blackmer as O’Neill
Donald Randolph as Adam
Edgar Stehli as Fraser
Jack Hartley as Stratton Clyde
North as Charlie
Wendell Corey as Higgins Arvid
Poulson as Nordling
Based on the stage play by Hennings Berger, and adapted for Presents by Frank Allen.
Directed by Wynn Wright.
Music composed and conducted by Morris Momorsky.
Story: unknown
Trivia, etc. The New York premiere for this play was in 1917 with Hrnry E.
Dixey and Edward G. Robinson in the cast.
Pauline Lord reprised her stage role for this radio production.
EPISODE #18 “JUSTICE” Broadcast on August 30, 1944
Starring: Estelle
Windwood as Ruth Honeywill
Whitford Kane as Coachum
Bramwell Fletcher as Folder
Eugene Earl as James Howell
Anthony Kemble Cooper as Walter Howell
Horace Braham as a defense attorney
Also in the cast: Neil
Fitzgerald, Harold Young, Alan Devitt, Alastair Kyle and Edward Brodie.
Based on the stage play by John Galsworthy, and adapted for Presents by Charles Newton.
Directed by Wynn Wright.
Music composed and conducted by Morris Momorsky.
Story: unknown
Trivia, etc. This stage play premiered in New York in 1916, six years
after the London premiere, with a cast including:
John Barrymore, Cathleen Nesbitt, Henry Stephenson and O.P.
Heggie. Edgar Stehli was
originally scheduled to play a featured role in this radio production,
but he was unable to attend.
EPISODE #19 “EXCURSION” Broadcast on September 6, 1944
Starring: Whitford
Kane
Directed by Wynn Wright.
Music composed and conducted by Morris Momorsky.
Story: unknown
Trivia, etc. This episode is one of two radio broadcasts of which a
recording is not known to exist in circulation among collectors and
old-time radio fans.
EPISODE #20 “A
BILL OF DIVORCEMENT”
Broadcast on September 13, 1944
Starring: Zita
Johann and Edgar Stehli
Directed by Wynn Wright.
Music composed and conducted by Morris Momorsky.
Story: Stehli is
released from a mental institution who returns to his wife (Johann) and
gets to know his daughter for the first time.
EPISODE #21 “THE
BUCCANEER” Broadcast
on September 20, 1944
Starring: Estelle
Windwood and Edgar Stehli
Directed by Wynn Wright.
Music composed and conducted by Morris Momorsky.
Story: unknown
Trivia, etc. This episode is one of two radio broadcasts of which a
recording is not known to exist in circulation among collectors and
old-time radio fans.
EPISODE #22 “HER
MASTER’S VOICE”
Broadcast on September 27, 1944
Starring: Roland
Young as Ned Farrar
Frances Fuller as Queena Farrar
Based on the stage play by Claire Kummer, and adapted for Presents by ________.
Directed by Wynn Wright.
Music composed and conducted by Morris Momorsky.
Story: unknown
EPISODE #23 “THE
PETRIFIED FOREST”
Broadcast on October 4, 1944
Starring: Dorothy
Knox as Gabby Maple
Bertram Tanswell as Alan Squier
Based on the stage play by Robert E. Sherwood, and adapted for Presents by __________.
Directed by Wynn Wright.
Music composed and conducted by Morris Momorsky.
Story: Idealist/loser
Alan arrives at the Maple service station and falls in love with the
waitress Gabby Maple. She
persuades the Chisholms to give him a ride on their way to California.
They are stopped by Duke Mantee and his gang who take the car.
Alan walks back to warn Gabby but Mantee is already there.
Alan signs over his insurance policy to Gabby and arranges for
Mantee to kill him. A posse
arrives and Alan is shot in the battle.
He dies in Gabby’s arms knowing she can realize her dream of
studying art in Paris.
EPISODE #24 “ESCAPE” Broadcast on October 11, 1944
Starring: Dennis
King
Based on the stage play by John Galsworthy, and adapted for Presents by _________.
Directed by Wynn Wright.
Music composed and conducted by Morris Momorsky.
Story: A countess,
the mistress of a Nazi General, helps a man get to his mother out of a
German Concentration camp before WW2.
EPISODE #25 “THE
MALE ANIMAL” Broadcast
on October 18, 1944
Starring: Elliott Nugent as Prof. Turner
Sidney Blackmer as Ed Keller
Louis Hard as Joel Ferguson
Ann Sterrett as Ann Turner
Edgar Stehli as the Dean
Also in the cast: Elizabeth
Eustace, Vinton Hayworth, Amanda Randolph, Peggy Conway,
George Corey, and Donald Dukas.
Based on the play by James Thurber and Elliott Nugent, adapted for Presents
by Charles Newton.
Directed by Wynn Wright.
Music composed and conducted by Morris Momorsky.
Story: The trustees
of Midwestern University have forced three teachers out of their jobs
for being suspected communists. Trustee
Ed Keller has also threatened mild mannered English Professor Tommy
Turner, because he plans to read a controversial piece of prose in
class. Tommy is upset that
his wife Ellen also suggested he not read the passage.
Meanwhile, Ellen’s old boyfriend, the football player Joe
Ferguson, comes to visit for the homecoming weekend.
He takes Ellen out dancing after the football rally, causing
Tommy to worry that he will lose her to Joe.
Trivia, etc. This play premiered in New York at the Cort in 1940, and
ran for 243 performances. Elliott
Nugent and Amanda Randolph reprised their stage roles for this
broadcast. Also in the NY
cast was Leon Ames, Ruth Matteson, Don DeFore, Gene Tierney, Matt Briggs
and Ivan Simpson.
EPISODE #26 “MR.
PIMM PASSES BY” Broadcast
on October 25, 1944
Starring: Violet
Heming as Olivia Martin
Cecil Humphreys as George Martin
Bertram Tanswell as Brian Strange
Edgar Stehli as Mr. Pimm
Kathleen Cordell as Dinah
Norah Howard as the maid
Ara Gerald as Lady Martin
Based on the stage play by A.A. Milne, and adapted for Presents by Charles Newton.
Directed by Wynn Wright.
Music composed and conducted by Morris Momorsky.
Story: unknown
Trivia, etc. A.A. Milne was also the celebrated author of the juvenile
adventures of Winnie-the-Pooh, and the author of the play “Peter
Pan.” This stage play
premiered at the New in London, England, in 1921.
The original NY cast included Dudley Diggs, O.P. Heggie, Laura
Hope Crews, Helene Westley and Phyllis Povah.
EPISODE #27 “BEYOND
THE HORIZON” Broadcast
on November 1, 1944
Starring: Aline
MacMahon as Ruth Philip
Huston as Robert
Norman McKeigh as Andrew
Jean Adair as Mrs. Mayo
Tess Sheehan as Mrs. Atkins
Howard Smith as Mr. Mayo
Lorna Lynn as Mary
Jim Bowles as Captain Scott
Eugene Earl as Dr. Fawcett
Based on the stage play by Eugene O’Neill, and adapted for Presents
by ___________.
Directed by Wynn Wright.
Music composed and conducted by Morris Momorsky.
Story: Beyond
the Horizon explores what happens when two men love the same woman
and the compromises each will make to have her. Eugene O’Neill won the
Pulitzer Prize for this 1920 drama.
Trivia, etc. The New York premiere was at the Morosco in 1920, and ran
111 performances. Aline
MacMahon reprised her stage role for this broadcast, but MacMahon was
not in the original stage cast. In
1926, the play was revived at the Mansfield, where MacMahon played the
role of Ruth.
EPISODE #28 “HOLIDAY” Broadcast on November 8, 1944.
Starring: Hope
Williams as Linda Seton
Tom Rutherford as Johnny Case
Vinton Hayworth as Nick Potter
Edgar Stehli as Edward Seton
Mary Patten as Julia Seton
Alexander Lockwood as Ned
Elizabeth Dewing as Susan Potter
Eugene Earl as Seton Kram
Patricia Neighbors as Laura Kram
John Stanley as the butler
Based on the stage play by Philip Barry, and adapted for Presents by Charles Newton.
Directed by Wynn Wright.
Music composed and conducted by Morris Momorsky.
Story: Free-thinking
Johnny Case finds himself betrothed to a millionaire’s daughter.
When her family, with the exception of black-sheep Linda and
drunken Ned, want Johnny to settle down to big business, he rebels,
wishing instead to spend the early years of his life on “holiday.” With the help of his friends Nick and Susan Potter, he makes
up his mind as to which is the better course, and the better mate.
Trivia, etc. “Holiday” premiered at the Plymouth in New York in 1928,
and ran 230 performances. Hope
Williams reprised her stage role for this broadcast.
Others in the NY cast included Ben Smith, Donald Ogden Stewart,
Dorothy Tree and Monroe Owsley.
EPISODE #29 “HOME
CAME THE STEED” Broadcast
on November 15, 1944
Starring: Sidney
Blackmer as Davy Crockett
Frances Fuller as Kate
Edgar Stehli as Thimble Riggs
Will Hare as Ned
Barry Hopkins as Col. Travers
Also in the cast: Donald
Morrison, Jack Hartley, Jim Bowles, Peter Graves, Michar
Artist, William Refield (billed as Billy Redfield), Edwin Cooper, Eda
Heinemann,
Winfield Honey and Pat Smith.
Based on the stage play by Edith Russell, and adapted for Presents by Charles Newton.
Directed by Wynn Wright.
Music composed and conducted by Morris Momorsky.
Story: unknown
Trivia, etc. This radio play, based on the stage play by Edith Russell,
was the only episode of the series that was not formerly a successful
stage play credited towards Arthur Hopkins.
In fact, _________
________________________________________________.
One interesting bit of casting notice: a young Peter Graves plays
a supporting role in this episode, many years before he even began
getting starring roles in B-class pictures during the fifties.
EPISODE #30 “BERKELEY
SQUARE” Broadcast
on November 22, 1944
Starring: Dennis
King as Peter Standish
Clarence Doe as Stanley
Mary Patten as Helen Petigrew
Horace Braham as Tom
Kathleen Cordell as Kate Pettigrew
Jean Cameron as Lady Anne
Anthony Kemble Cooper as Throstle
Elizabeth Dewing as Marjory
Barry Hopkins as the Ambassador
Neil Fitzgerald as Mayor Clinton
Eva Leonard Boyne as the Duchess of Devonshire
Norah Howard as Mrs. Bowick
Based on the stage play by John L. Balderston, and adapted by
Ethel Ann Kreppel.
Directed by Wynn Wright.
Music composed and conducted by Morris Momorsky.
Story: A young
American man is transported back to London in the time of the American
Revolution and meets his ancestors.
Trivia, etc. This play premiered at St. Martin’s in London, England
in 1926, and in New York in 1929. Leslie
Howard and Margalo Gillmore was in the original New York cast.
EPISODE #31 “ROADSIDE” Broadcast on November 29, 1944
Starring: Ralph Bellamy as the Texan
Jack Hartley as the Marhsall
Ruth Elma Stevens as Hannah Raider
Edgar Stehli as Judge Snodgrass
Charles Dow Clark as Pat
John Robb as Buzzy Hale
Junius Matthews as Ned
Based on the stage play by Lynn Riggs, and adapted for Presents by Ethel Ann Kreppel.
Directed by Wynn Wright.
Music composed and conducted by Morris Momorsky.
Story: Pap Raider (G.W.
Bailey) and his ripe-for-love-and-marriage daughter Hannie (Julie
Johnson) are itinerants, taking their tent show through the Oklahoma
Territory during the early 1900s. Buzzey
(James Hindman) tries to woo Hannie into settling down with him on his
farm but Hannie yearns for someone less clownish and more romantic.
That someone turns out to be Texas (Jonathan Beck Reed), a
swaggering, gun-toting, hard-drinking cowboy, who like her refuses to
settle (as smartly summed up in “I Toe the Line”).
To round things out Pap’s retinue includes two not too bright
young cousins, Red Ike (Ryan Appleby) and Black Ike (Steve Barcus). The town is embodied in a threesome consisting of the town
Marshall (William Ryall) who is out to corral Texas into his jail, his
jailer (Tom Flagg), and the town busybody (Jennifer Allen).
Trivia, etc. Bellamy and Stevens reprised their stage roles for this
episode. Arthur Hopkins
produced and directed the original stage production in 1930, at Longacre,
New York, which only lasted a mere 11 performances.
The broadcast of December 6, 1944 was pre-empted by a bond drive.
EPISODE #32 “STREET
SCENE” Broadcast
on December 13, 1944
Starring: Erin
O’Brien Moore as Rose Moran Horace
Braham as Sam Kaplan
Norman McKeigh as Frank Moran
Margaret Callahan as Anna Moran
Also in the cast: Grace Valentine, Verna Rayburn, Clyde North,
Anna Karin, Raymond
Bramley, Larry Haines, Jackie Ayers, George Sorel, John Robb and
Donald Morrison.
Based on the play by Elmer Rice, and adapted for Presents
by Ethel Ann Kreppel.
Directed by Wynn Wright.
Music composed and conducted by Morris Momorsky.
Story: Heartbreakingly
realistic account in the life of New York tenements, and the younger
generation’s desperation to get out.
Elmer Rice’s Pulitzer-Prize winning play will move you when you
listen to this episode.
Trivia, etc. This stage play premiered at the Playhouse in New York in
1929, and lasted an impressive 601 performances. Erin O’Brien Moore and Horace Braham reprised their stage
roles for this radio broadcast. Others
in the original stage cast included Beulah Bondi, John Qualen, Robert
Kelly, Astrid Alwynn, Mary Servoss and Leo Bulgakov.
EPISODE #33 “RICHARD
II” Broadcast on December 20, 1944
Starring: Dennis
King as Richard II
Thomas Chalmers as John of Gaunt
Horace Braham as Bolingbrooke
Nicholas Joy as York
Sherling Oliver as Mowbray
Kathleen Cordell as the Queen
Also in the cast: Anthony
Kemble Cooper, Stanley Bell, Burford Hampden, Bertram Tanswell,
Dennis King, Jr., John Stanley and Whitford Kane.
Based on the stage play by William Shakespeare, and adapted for Presents by __________.
Directed by ______________.
Music composed and conducted by Morris Momorsky.
Story: King Richard
II and his uncle John of Gaunt tries to convince Henry Bolingbroke (Gaunt’s
son) and Thomas Mowbray (Duke of Norfolk) to settle a quarrel, wherein
Bolingbroke accuses Mowbray of murdering Richard’s brother the Duke of
Gloucester (Thomas of Woodstock). Although
Mowbray didn’t kill him, he could have prevented it or at least told
the truth that Richard II had ordered it.
Richard II cannot calm them, so he allows them to compete in a
joust, then stops the joust while it is starting and sentences the two
to banishment from England Mowbray forever and Bolingbroke for five
years. Mowbray predicts
while leaving that Bolingbroke will retaliate and defeat Richard II.
Therein lies the opening scenes of William Shakespeare’s
tragedy of historical nature.
EPISODE #34 “THE
BLUEBIRD” Broadcast
on December 27, 1944
Starring: Alastair
Kyle as Tilhill
Joyce Van Patten as Mittel
Mary Patten as Light
Edgar Stehli as The Cat
Catherine Emmett as The Good Fairy
Elizabeth Dewing as Happiness
Also in the cast: Ann
Bracken, Jackie Grimes, Eugene Earl, Tess Sheehan, Margaret
Callahan, and Don Morrison.
Based on the stage play by Maurice Maeterlinck, and adapted for Presents by _____.
Directed by _____________.
Music composed and conducted by Morris Momorsky.
Story: A Christmas
novelty that playwright Maeterlinck is perhaps best known for.
A fairy play in six acts, that takes place during the holiday
season, and fits wonderfully with the season, as this episode was aired
two days after Christmas.
Trivia, etc. The New York premiere in 1910 for this stage play
included the following cast: Margaret Wycherly, Louise Closser Hale,
Irene Browne and Gladys Hulette.
EPISODE #35 “THE
JOYOUS SEASON” Broadcast
on January 3, 1945
Starring: Lillian Gish as Christina Farley
Sherling Oliver as John Farley
Margaret Callahan as Terry Farley
Sidney Nesbitt as Francis Battle
Ann Sterrett as Monica
Elizabeth Dewing as Edith
Ted Jewett as Martin
Also in the cast: Eugene
Earl, Vinton Hayworth, Doris McQuiert, Whitford Kane
and Tess Sheehan.
Directed by _______________.
Music composed and conducted by Morris Momorsky.
Story: unknown
Trivia, etc. The original production of this stage play lasted a mere
16 performances at the Belasco in New York.
Lillian Gish reprised her stage role for this radio production.
Also in the original stage production were Jane Wyatt, Mary
kennedy, Eric Dressler, Jerome Lawler, Alan Campbell, John Eldredge,
Florence Williams, Moffat Johnston and Kate Mayhew.